Prince made fans wait an hour for Welcome 2 Chicago encore

A newly afro-ed Prince's opening night of his three-evening Welcome 2 Chicago residency at the United Center proved to be a test of most fans' patience. Although Chicago-area supporters have already waited eight years to get to these concerts, it seemed that most weren't prepared to hang in their seats for an hour between encores.

Not to say that there weren't plenty of moments earlier in the evening that were impressive -- notably a 20-piece band, a cover of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and a vibrant take on "Cream." Still, people are left with how things end. As detailed by the Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot and Star Tribune's Jon Bream, a lengthy encore break was not a move that punctuated the evening properly. "It was a strangely anticlimactic ending," Kot writes.

According to the accounts of the evening, the lights stayed dark for about half an hour after Prince exited the stage following his first encore. Then, the house lights came on and most of the remaining crowd booed.

However, 50 minutes after leaving the stage, Prince emerged in an all-black outfit with his guitar to play full and satisfying versions of "Little Red Corvette" and "1999" to a few thousand stragglers.

The encore was strange, too: Electronic versions of some of his biggest hits, mostly without the band. A full-on finale with Prince going nuts on the guitar seemed in order. But, instead he made everyone wait in the dark. When he finally did re-appear, fans who paid more than $100 to attend were in their cars, probably wondering what the heck happened to an evening that had started off with such promise.

So he played the show, then played an encore. The lights took more time than normal to come back on, so people stayed. He then came back out to satisfy the people that did stay for no reason by playing a couple of his biggest songs. But you're right, it's his fault.